Tory cuts to street repairs start early

Surrey County Council's most popular move, since the introduction of "Local Committees" to oversee Highways works, has been the provision of "Community Gangs" working in consultation with local county councillors, to deal with potholes, loose kerb stones and paving slabs, over-hanging vegetation, minor repairs and repainting etc. However, in their budget, the Conservatives had announced that they would be cutting the time these gangs can spend in each area - and last week the axe fell.

Until now each of Epsom & Ewell's divisions had the benefit of the Community Gang available in rotation, for one week every six weeks. This has now been reduced and it seems they will only be able to work in each division for one week every nine weeks at best. Without warning, the work scheduled in Epsom & Ewell South West last week was cancelled and it is not yet known when the Community Gang will be available again anywhere in the borough.

County Councillor Colin Taylor (Lib Dem), whose division was the first to suffer, said: "I had warned residents that cuts were coming after the election in June, but this early start to the Tory cuts will be deeply disappointing to local people who have been waiting expectantly to see the street defects that they have reported weeks and months ago dealt with. We had been beginning to catch up on the back-log until extra potholes appeared following the snow. Now I fear things may get a lot worse before the Tories realise their mistake."